Frasca Food & Wine, Boulder's Italian Inspired Neighborhood Restaurant

Frasca is this historic dining tradition

in northeastern Italy, whereby small farms

would hang a little branch out on the mailbox

of a country road, and indicate to people driving by

they could pull in for

that local family's cuisine and wine.

Frasca historically really was the neighborhood place to eat

and that's always been our philosophy.

We looked to Italy for ispiration,

and fell in love with this one particular area.

Friuli is a really unique region, right,

because it has the sea, the inland wine country,

foothills and the mountains,

all within 150k as the crow flies.

It's one of those really unique areas

where you can eat so distinctively different

every 30 miles or so.

To me it's all about the different influences

that come into particularly that area of Italy,

maybe from outside of Italy.

Yeah, you can be in the mountains

and having great cocoa, and cinnamon

that came through the spice trade from Africa,

mixed in with things you might expect, that are Italian.

And in addition to that, you also have,

you know Slovenian cuisine,

just 'cause it borders the eastern side of Friuli,

Austrain cuisine 'cause it borders the north.

So, it truly is just this insane intersection

of cultures, language, food traditions,

as well as have a huge range of wines

unlike many other parts of Italy,

and even some other parts of Europe.

So when we wake up in the morning

myself, the whole wine team,

we really think of Friuli first,

northern Italy second,

and then the rest of the world.

So what does Friuli do great in your opinion?

It's the greatest white wine region in Italy.

Bar none.

And then we do really, really good reds there,

and it's funny, they do merlot

and cabernet franc really well,

which are Bordeaux varietals,

and then they do these very fun idiosyncratic,

indigenous grapes like tazzelenghe, schioppettino, refosco,

so you kinda have something that people have heard of,

and then something that people have never heard of.

[Lachlan] We always say that any great chef

should rely on high quality ingredients,

and the menu should reflect the season that you're in.

So Frasca prepares a menu

that reflects those kinds of things.

Well one of the things that is really fun

to work with the chefs at Frasca about

is the changing seasonality of things.

You can't beat food that was harvested that morning,

and then ends up in the kitchen that afternoon,

which is exactly how it ends up.

[Lachlan] Everyday we huddle up for pre-service

Table 19.

We have Jamie McDonald coming in.

Go over every single guest that's coming in.

He is a TV host, he prefers less red meat.

To best prepare the entire team,

font and back of the house for an amazing night.

And that's our ritual.

We always try to keep the tradition,

the flavor profile in our mind.

There's a white asparagus festival in Tavagnacco.

What we've seen there, they do some white asparagus

with polenta or right now our we're serving on our

(mumbles)

white asparagus with San Daniele prosciutto,

but we serve it with a smoked ricotta spuma.

You know, we always wanna convey

our care and love to the guest.

So, how do we present it

in a different way that's beautiful.

Frico is a traditional cheese dish

of the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

Comes in two different versions,

a crispy frico called frico croccante,

and then a hot version called frico caldo,

which is made with potatoes, cheese, onions,

and a little bit of nutmeg and salt.

You cook it in a skillet,

almost like this incredible hash brown.

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Our ultimate goal I'd say is

to be the greatest neighborhood restaurant in the world.

And doing it through the lens

of this particular area in Italy,

and on this historic feeling of a frasca,

where you just know everybody.

So it's this huge element of comfort

and hospitality tied into what we do.

It's just the continual quest of Frasca.

Salut

Salut

(upbeat music)